Authors

This work is the first attempt to identify remaining intact boreal forest of northern European Russia (including the Ural mountains) using high-resolution satellite imagery in order to identify most forms of human disturbance in natural ecosystems and map remaining large intact natural forest landscapes. Large was defined as no smaller than 50,000 hectares in size and at least 10 kilometers in width.

The investigation reveals that remaining intact forest landscapes cover only a small part of northern European Russia (16.3 percent of the investigated region, and 13.8 percent of the entire forest zone). All these areas could, and probably should, become part of the protected areas network of the north, given their capacity to serve as reference areas while independently sustaining their ecological integrity.